What if the sea sayings helped us to decipher the weather? The ancients used to say: " Sun surrounded, within 24 hours, canvas to return ". What should we understand and why?
Why does the sun sometimes appear circled?
The phenomenon of circled sun appears when the sky fills with cirrostratus. This type of cloud forms at high altitude, above 5500 meters. It appears as a diffuse and continuous veil that covers the whole sky or part of it.
The cirrostratus layer can be so thin that it is almost not noticeable. However, these clouds are often accompanied by a slight halo around the sun, or the moon at night. This is created by the reflection of light on ice crystals suspended in high altitude clouds like cirrostratus. The halo can look like a circular rainbow around the sun.
What does a ringed sun tell us?
A ringed sun is necessarily the mark of high altitude clouds composed of ice crystals. Cirrostratus are not in themselves rain clouds. They can therefore appear when the weather is good. However, as the cirrus of the same family, they are announcing the arrival of a depression.
The sailor, according to the saying, will then have interest to watch the weather in the following hours and bring in the canvas, that is to say reduce the sail, to face the bad weather associated with the depression.
Associated sayings
The sailor's repertoire is not limited to the circled sun. Other expressions have entered the lexicon such as: " Never shoot the mast, because the captain seeing it, waits for the weather ", or " Doubled crowns around the sun, upcoming storm " but still " Circle the moon in the evening, wind and rain at midnight, we will feel and see ".
